Yoast’s Variables

It turns out that the WordPress SEO by Yoast variables weren’t removed. They were just moved. In my searching and head-scratching, I finally found the answer in a WordPress support forum and I thought I’d share the answer here.

Here are both lists of WordPress SEO titles and metas variables, as provided by Yoast in his plugin’s Help section. See below for screenshots.

Basic WordPress SEO Title Variables

%%date%%

Replaced with the date of the post/page

%%title%%

Replaced with the title of the post/page

%%sitename%%

The site’s name

%%sitedesc%%

The site’s tagline / description

%%excerpt%%

Replaced with the post/page excerpt (or auto-generated if it does not exist)

%%excerpt_only%%

Replaced with the post/page excerpt (without auto-generation)

%%tag%%

Replaced with the current tag/tags

%%category%%

Replaced with the post categories (comma separated)

%%category_description%%

Replaced with the category description

%%tag_description%%

Replaced with the tag description

%%term_description%%

Replaced with the term description

%%term_title%%

Replaced with the term name

%%searchphrase%%

Replaced with the current search phrase

%%sep%%

The separator defined in your theme’s wp_title() tag.

Advanced WordPress SEO Meta Variables

%%pt_single%%

Replaced with the post type single label

%%pt_plural%%

Replaced with the post type plural label

%%modified%%

Replaced with the post/page modified time

%%id%%

Replaced with the post/page ID

%%name%%

Replaced with the post/page author’s ‘nicename’

%%userid%%

Replaced with the post/page author’s userid

%%currenttime%%

Replaced with the current time

%%currentdate%%

Replaced with the current date

%%currentday%%

Replaced with the current day

%%currentmonth%%

Replaced with the current month

%%currentyear%%

Replaced with the current year

%%page%%

Replaced with the current page number (i.e. page 2 of 4)

%%pagetotal%%

Replaced with the current page total

%%pagenumber%%

Replaced with the current page number

%%caption%%

Attachment caption

%%focuskw%%

Replaced with the posts focus keyword

%%term404%%

Replaced with the slug which caused the 404

%%cf_<custom-field-name>%%

Replaced with a posts custom field value

%%ct_<custom-tax-name>%%

Replaced with a posts custom taxonomies, comma separated.

%%ct_desc_<custom-tax-name>%%

Replaced with a custom taxonomies description

Where’d they go?

It turns out that Yoast didn’t remove his list of title & meta variables; he relocated it. It’s now tucked away under the Help tab at the very top of the Titles & Metas screen.